‘A Performance of Cruelty’: Psychiatrist Calls for End of HPAT - 23/02/2026

The HPAT for medical students is a “performance of cruelty” and should be scrapped, a consultant psychiatrist and associate clinical professor has argued. The Health Professions Admission Test is an examination used to help universities select students who apply to study medicine. It lasts for 2.5 hours and tests applicants on logical reasoning, problem solving, interpersonal understanding and non-verbal reasoning. Dr Matthew Sadlier says he does not believe that some of the skills assessed in the HPAT are needed in a medical career, noting that some doctors have no need of interpersonal understanding - or ‘bedside manner’ - as they never deal with patients.Dr Sadlier also doubts very much that a person’s bedside can be accurately assessed in an HPAT exam, and he joined us on The Agenda this morning to talk to us some more about this. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.